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Allen Ginsberg’s poem ‘Howl’ after fifty years

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of American poet Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” one of the most influential poems of the twentieth century.

Very few poems sell over a million copies and get translated into virtually every language in the world.

Where a generation could repeat from memory that two roads “diverged in a yellowed wood” that may at other times be “lovely, dark, and deep” though there be miles to go before you sleep, so the laconic opening line of “Howl,” “I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” is widely known.

‘Howl’ Too Hot To Hear: 50 Years After Poem Ruled Not Obscene, [US] Radio Fears To Air It: here.